There are a number of educational toys that have been described in the literature. For example, one such educational toy is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,780. In this patent, a number of blocks with indicia are described. Each block includes a voice synthesizer and speaker so that when a child touches a block, the name of the letter on the block sounds.
While a toy such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,780 may be suitable for some purposes, a number of improvements could be made. A child's toys are often located in the child's bedroom or playroom in a dwelling, while the child's caregiver is working in the kitchen. The kitchen is typically the most frequented part of a dwelling. The kitchen is where food is prepared, the family eats its meals, snacks are eaten, and dishes are washed. If the child is a toddler, a caregiver will often want the child to be in the same room as the caregiver so that the child can be supervised. Thus, if the child is in the kitchen with the caregiver, the child will often be without his or her toys. The caregiver may not want the child to bring toys into the kitchen, since this may produce clutter the kitchen. Second, each block in the above-described U.S. patent includes a speech chip and other circuitry. Providing a speech chip in each block can be quite costly and could be impractical for children's toys.
In addition to the educational toys described above, there are a number of commercially available refrigerator magnets that have specialized indicia such as letters. However, such refrigerator magnets are not interactive or fun and are essentially no better than pictures of numbers or letters that might be depicted on a piece of paper.
It would be useful to provide for an educational toy that can be used in the kitchen, that does not clutter the kitchen, and that provides for fun and interactive learning in a place where a child's caregiver and the child spend a significant amount of time. It would also be desirable to accomplish these objectives in a cost effective manner.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems.